Test accord set to collapse

Although a series of negotiations to get an agreement in place had resulted in a final limit of 30 days in-season testing being agreed among the majority of teams this week, the whole scheme is now on the verge of collapse with high level insiders telling autosport.com that Honda will not agree to those plans unless Ferrari changes its mind and joins in.

With team boss Frank Williams having made it clear last week that it would require a minimum of nine teams to sign up to the plans for it to come into action, autosport.com understands that Honda's senior management has decided that it will not agree to the terms on offer unless Ferrari also comes on board. Honda's buy-in of the BAR team now means it can influence the team's decisions.

One source close to Honda said: "We are not going to agree to this plan."

The stance has come because Honda has ambitious targets to win the world championship and feels that to voluntarily sign up to a scheme that would instantly put it at a disadvantage to Ferrari would not be in its best interests.

When asked by autosport.com about whether the company had made a final decision, Honda's F1 engineering director Shuhei Nakamoto claimed that the company was still considering its options - but did suggest that it will be swayed by title ambitions.

"We are considering all our options but why should we limit our testing if we want to win the world championship," he said.

Honda F1's vice-president Otmar Szafnauer did confirm to autosport.com, however, that the decision of Ferrari would be important.

"If Ferrari agree then we will sign up for the plan," he said. "We will be happy to do that for the good of the sport. But if they don't agree then we will have to reconsider."

Although a final decision by Honda is not expected to be confirmed until a meeting of team bosses and Bernie Ecclestone on January 25, three days before FIA president Max Mosley meets the teams, the reality is that the leading campaigners behind the recent accord agreements may now have to refocus their efforts towards 2006.

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart made it clear that he would be deeply unhappy if BAR's decision scuppered the testing plans for 2005 - and urged them to think carefully before making a final decision to go their own way.

"If they don't sign because Ferrari don't sign then that would be a very poor show," Stoddart told autosport.com. "While I have the greatest respect for BAR, I don't think being a Michelin-running team that those extra days that Ferrari will use is going to make any difference."

Of more concern to Minardi, however, is that the unanimity pact that was forged between nine teams at the Brazilian Grand Prix and has been maintained ever since does not fall apart completely - even if the testing agreement fails.

"If we lost sight of that initiative, then however much pain in 2005 there is there will be a lot more pain in 2006 and beyond," he said. "We have started something, which could only have been started after Ford sent the shockwave through the sport by saying they were out. It took something as serious as that to happen and luckily we had Bernie Ecclestone on hand to make these changes go through.

"F1 will be a sadder place if we lose sight of this. It will degenerate into what we were - which is a bunch of useless individuals making no change of any meaningful purpose for F1."